Evaluation Note / Nilgün Arısan Eralp

The European Union (EU) has been looking for ways and means to engage with Türkiye for quite some time, actually after the country’s accession negotiations have effectively come to a standstill in 2018.

The main factors influencing the EU in this direction have been the following:

• Strong demand/need to have a sustainable stability and security in the East Mediterranean;
• Its unsolved migrant/refugee problem.

After the elections in Türkiye the number of the reasons leading the European Union - that has been curiously waiting for the result - to determine a “new” path in its relations with Turkey increased. The following developments has influenced the EU in addition to the aforementioned ones:

• The current administration would at least last five more years there is a need to engage with it;
• Geostrategic and security environment has been changing fast, especially in the EU’s neighbourhood;
• Türkiye’s reluctance for Sweden’s accession to NATO;
• After the Russian aggression enlargement has been back in the EU’s agenda, hence something else had to be found for the “awkward” partner that is officially a candidate as well.

You may read evaluation note from here.